In our blissful ignorance and deep sleep, we had no idea that the captain and crew were battling 30km headwinds as they headed for the tiny settlement of Flaam at the head of a fjord. They made an announcement on the corridor tannoy, that I can’t really hear too well, to the effect that due to our late arrival, that those booked on the first Flam train were going to be disappointed as we were too late. Thank goodness Paula had opted for the 11:03am train. 
Flam is a tiny settlement that makes Cobh look like a metropolis. A very pretty place though with several shops, small hotels and cafes plus a railway museum giving the history of the Flam railway.
Arguably, without the railway, there would be precious little tourism and certainly not enough to attract cruise ships.
The ship berthed on the Starboard side, bow almost in the town.
No Ho-Ho buses – far too small a place.
Apart from the railway or a ship’s tour, maybe a fjord run on a small boat, other than walking, not much at all here.
No passports or ID required. Just a walk off.
We walked of the ship with our group, then stood around for a while until our guide, Julius, led us to the far end of the platform and into the second carriage back from the electric locomotive. Funny, that I expected a small steam train, but as there are any number of tunnels, electric is much cleaner.
We climbed the 836 metres steadily and past some stunning scenery, reminiscent of the Tairei Gorge railway into Dunedin. Then we stopped for a photo opportunity at the impressive Kjosfossen waterfall. (Let’s see how the spell checker sees that…) where it was distinctly damp as the rain started to come down, added to the spray so we needed our plastic over coats. By the time we’d reached our destination, Vatnahalsen, it was cool and wet. Make that quite cold and wet. We trooped into the hotel, to lukewarm coffee from flasks, but (cold) help yourself waffles with bowls of raspberry topping and fresh cream. Delicious.
We chatted to an ex Met Policeman who was very interesting to talk to and like me, was also a scout and later Akela. He was far from impressed with the current PC (no pun intended) culture and refused the opportunity to carry on as a trainer on a part-time basis.
Back down to sea level again and we discarded layers as we approached sea level, where generally, it was bright and mild.
We opted for a bakeri (doesn’t need much translation) for a too bready concoction with a small circle of raspberry and cream cheese, plus what we deduced to be tightly rolled puff pastry, cut into slices then brushed with possibly sugar and butter which turned into sticky toffee when baked.
Back on board, a late lunch of grilled salmon, with spinach and cocktail onions – which seems to be a regular dish. There is always fried fish and chips (catering for the Brits no doubt), so although the lunch buffet food is OK, we are not getting the range or variety we are used to. They seem to run to a very rigid formula on these 14 day cruises, so unlike the longer runs, the buffet chef can’t just pick up local produce and create his own dishes. More’s the pity, but it does make Princess’s job easier.
No win at trivia, but just us and two we had chatted to before.
A long sailaway and with the long hours of daylight, a good view of the fjord that we missed on the way in. The captain apologised to those who missed out on their train trip but went on to explain that it was touch and go that we got in at all. Safety has to come first. Our new table mate isn’t exactly a fun person (as yet) and the table conversation quality has dropped… I think we’ll be fighting for seating… Rolls up late; takes an age to read the menu; pores over the wine list first - so we are lucky if the waiter has even taken our order by 8:25pm. I can see us skipping a meal or two in the dining room before long unless things change for the better.
The sliced veal was very nice and a meal I think we’d missed on the previous voyage as we’d gone Indian at the buffet.
On to the show which was John Martin, comedian again. Not a bad show with one or two good laughs, but again, too much ‘old’ stuff, some of which, we’d already heard whilst on this ship.
As a matter of interest, we scanned the drinks menus in two bars and neither had port listed… Strange, as they do sell it. Ditto, the cider isn’t listed either. It was still light at bed time as it will be for the next few nights. No tour planned for tomorrow, so we’ll just walk off and if there is a HoHo, we might consider it.
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